coastieexpat

I think your best bet would be to go on Aer Lingus to Dublin, BA charges as much in Fees as the flight costs in economy so I would avoid BA.

The Points Guy explains how to do it here... http://thepointsguy.com/2012/04/usin...el-surcharges/

I think you could make 2 return trips with a 100,000 miles

Speedwell

Whuh... I didn't know EI was a BA partner. Too awesome and thanks!!

tonrob

Well....

There are three versions of the Platinum card:

1) 'Regular' one - the one you've been invited for. Sign-up offer has been as high as 100,000 in the past, sometimes 75,000 and more frequently 50,000 (and sometimes nothing). I therefore think your offer of 25,000 to upgrade (from Gold?) isn't great.

2) Mercedes Benz Platinum - same as above but offer almost always 50,000 and fee is slightly higher at $475. There are few built-in bennies if you were actually thinking of buying a Mercedes. (Nearly forgot - you also get a $100 voucher to buy MB-branded accessories at your MB dealer of choice, even if you're not buying a car).

3) Business Platinum - almost never any sign-up offer (grab it if you ever see one - but not before letting me know...)

The reason it's worth paying the Platinum annual fee - especially at this time of year, is that the cards each offer a $200 per calendar year airline fee reimbursement. You need to read up about how this works if you're thinking of doing it, but the gist is that you can get $200 in airline gift cards each year. So... if you applied for a card now, grab $200 in gift cards now and then another $200 on 1st January. The other thing to know is that AMEX will automatically refund a pro-rated amount of your annual fee if you cancel before your membership year is up - so if you cancelled - say - on the 25th January then you should get around $395 back.

Based on this, if I were you I'd be going down the Mercedes Benz route now, and netting 50,000 MR points (easily worth upwards of $1,000 - much higher depending on how you redeem them) and $400 in airline gift cards - all for well under $100.

Stuff to note:

• Airline GCs are excluded in AMEX's Ts&Cs - nonetheless it works for a number of airlines (I've done it 6 times) - there are threads on FT to get up-to-date info on what works and what doesn't. Also I don't like airline GCs as I don't like paying for airline tickets in the first place - so I usually sell mine via whatever site is showing the best rate on Gift Card Granny.
• AMEX will cancel all your MR points if you have no MR-earning cards open, so keep hold of your Gold or else apply for another MR card before canceling your Platinum.

You can get even more value out of the Platinum if you want - they'll reimburse your Global Entry fee if you pay with the card.

coastieexpat

Actually it's the Business Platinum upgrade, I already have the Business Gold.

So I took your advice and upgraded, I will have to look into all the details, $450 is a lot of money

BTW this was a targeted offer I think, as Amex sent me an email.

tonrob

Excellent - I think that's a good offer and am officially slightly jealous.

Here are a selection of links to separate FT threads for peoples' experiences in obtaining the $200 fee reimbursement across a number of airlines. If going down the gift card route, be careful as whether reimbursements are made or not is a fairly fluid state of affairs and can vary airline by airline - so look for others with recent reports if you can.


Delta
US Airways
American Airlines
Southwest
United
Hawaiian
Alaskan

coastieexpat

That's how I've felt for the last 2 years.....Fortunately you have chosen to share your wisdom and I greatly appreciate it. If I wasn't a Brit I would heap you with more praise.....but , well you know how it is ...

Thanks for the links, I think I am going to go with AA, I'm not particularly fond of the Airline but I can still get tier points and miles to apply to BA.

It looks as if I could buy 4x $50.00 GC's and get reimbursed, I was planning on taking a trip to South America sometime in the future anyway so I can apply them to that, I dont think there is an expiration date on the gift cards.

I may apply for the Global Entry programme also, as they will reimburse that too.

One thing I cant seem to find is the reward points for everyday spend, the gold gave me 2x for fuel and 3x for travel, I hope that stays the same.

Thanks again !

tonrob

Before you decide on gift card denominations, make sure that you know how many GCs can be redeemed per booking. My first purchase/reimbursement was for 4x Southwest GCs, but when I came to buy a ticket recently for $203 I found that Southwest's site would only let me use 4 forms of payment per booking - so I could only use 3 of the 4 GCs and then a credit card for the remaining $53. Needless to say I was furious at my stupidity in having to fork over such an extravagant sum to an airline.

coastieexpat

Disgraceful

I was wondering how I can cancel out of this deal in January and still retain the Amex card, can I downgrade back to gold ? Or should I try to get another beforehand ? I can transfer the points, ( more than likely to Avios as they have a 30% bonus coming up on Dec 3 ), so I wouldn't lose them if I cancelled. However I like having the card.....any thoughts ?

Cheers

tonrob

Can't downgrade as far as I am aware (but I supopose it couldn't hurt to ask, although I assume they'd think you were really taking the piss). You can - if you want - get an AMEX Green card which will keep the points alive, but a Green card on its own howevere doesn't allow the transfer of points to travel programmes, so you'd need to get another Gold (or higher) card before you were able to extract your points in this way. All of this is made easier however since AMEX updated its terms to remove the 'once per lifetime' clause on the sign-up bonuses for its cards.

I, myself, have a Platinum (Mercedes Benz) that's going to (in effect) start costing me money if I don't cancel it in January. By January though it will be a full 12 months since I held a personal Gold card so I'm hoping for another offer on that one sometime soon.

I'm not tempted at all with the current 30% BA transfer offer (I have too many BA miles as it is), and the 35% Virgin Atlantic offer is only marginally tempting - the only way these would be realistically of use to me is if I transfer AMEX>Virgin>Hilton and I'm sceptical as to whether this provides sufficient value from my MR points. (I also find Hilton points very easy to rake in in large quanitities via other means).

tonrob

Not a common occurrence.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/freque...-cards-20-off/

coastieexpat

It's back !!

http://thepointsguy.com/2012/11/british-airways-visa-100000-mile-bonus-is-back-through-february-2013/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook&utm_ca mpaign=Feed%3A+thepointsguy+%28The+Points+Guy%29&u tm_content=FaceBook

Not as good as previous offers as you have to spend more to get the miles. However if you are going for the companion pass it would work out well, we are going 1st class to Paris next year, ( with a stopover in the UK ), we have to pay the taxes and fees, ( around $1150 each ) but still a fantastic deal.


I copied this from the link above.....

-You will get 50,000 bonus Avios after your first purchase
-25,000 bonus Avios after you make $10,000 in purchases within the first year of account opening
-Plus an additional 25,000 bonus Avios after you make a total of $20,000 in purchases within the first year of account opening
- 1.25 miles for every dollar spent on the card
- 2.5 miles per dollar spent on British Airways travel
- No foreign transaction fees
-New: Smart Chip Technology allows you to use your card for chip-based purchases in Europe & beyond, while still giving you the ability to use your card as you do today at home.
- Companion certificate after $30,000 in spend. This companion ticket allows a second miles redemption for free. So if you use 100,000 miles for a business class ticket from Los Angeles to London, the second business class ticket costs 0 miles (you only pay taxes). A huge value if used properly.
- $95 annual fee

tonrob

It keeps getting harder to meet the spend though. The deal (link here) is as follows:

• 50,000 miles after $1,000 spend in 3 months
• 25,000 more miles after $10,000 spend in first year
• 25,000 more miles after another $10,000 spent in first year

Now - in some respects the spend requirement shouldn't be a put-off because I'd only recommend this card wholeheartedly if you were going to go sor $30,000 spend anyway - this being the threshold in oredr to get the 'Travel Together' (or 241) voucher, which effectively doubles the value of your miles if you intend to use them to fly BA.



Health warning:
Don't get this card if you are thinking of redeeming on trans-Atlantic flights in economy or premium economy - the taxes and fees will make you wonder why you bothered with the miles in the first place. The fees for business and first are also high, but at least you get a much better bang for yiour buck in the miles that you're using.


Couple of other notes:

• BA miles offer surprisingly good value when redeemed for domestic travel on AA.
• If you're thinking of a new card to apply for consider one that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards instead. The sign-up bonuss are lower (typically 50,000) but the points are so, so much more useful than BA miles (they convert to BA and United, so good for One World and Star Alliance carriers, and also for other stuff like Hyatt hotels and Amtrak trains).

Edit: Great minds think alike!

GeoffM

I wish my landlady would accept AMEX payment. That'd be 15000 off the bat right there.

If you were to use them, isn't the recommendation to use them for an upgrade rather than outright purchase?

tonrob

Step 1: Find a local pharmacy that stocks Vanilla Reload cards* and will let you buy with a credit card (majority only let you pay with cash).
Step 2: Apply for AMEX Bluebird card (prepaid debit card) and use Vanilla Reloads to load the card.
Step 3: Use Bluebird's free bill pay service to send your landlady a check each month.

*Vanilla Reload cards cost $3.95 per $500.

Upgrades are very good value with miles when you can find them, but so are outright redemptions in Club and First, even better if you're using a 241.

tonrob

Your Guide to Spending Avios, courtesy of Flyertalk.